The Dalniy Vostok trawler (the vessel was called STENDE before 2014)

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. The death toll in the wreck of the Russian Dalny Vostok trawler has risen to 56 as bodies of two more victims were recovered from the Sea of Okhotsk, a source at the emergency services told TASS on Thursday.

"The bodies of two Russian national have been found," the source said.

According to the official spokesman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the Russian trawler sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula within 15 minutes early on Thursday and the most probable cause of the shipwreck is the collision with an obstacle. The collision apparently damaged the hull in the area of machinery compartment, Markin said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the emergencies commission in the Kamchatka Territory, Sergey Khabarov, said one of the causes of the shipwreck was capsizing as a result of lifting the trawl of around 80 tons.

"According to preliminary data, there was keeling over as a result of lifting the trawl with fish to the deck and then the vessel turned on its side," Khabarov said.

The Dalniy Vostok freezer trawler wrecked in the Sea of Okhotsk 330 kilometers west of Krutogorovsky settlement (Kamchatka region) and 250 kilometers south of the city of Magadan at 04:12 local time on Thursday.

The trawler, owned by Magellan LLC, was built in 1989 and its home port was Nevelsk.

A total of 132 people were reportedly on board. Out of them there were 56 passengers and 76 crew members, Markin said. There were 78 Russian nationals, 42 citizens of Myanmar, 5 citizens of Vanuatu, 3 citizens of Latvia and 4 citizens of Ukraine, he said.